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There’s a Uranium Mine in Nebraska?
Crow Butte Near Crawford

Charmaine White Face

Charmaine White Face, Oglala Tetuwan (the Lakota speakers) of the Oceti Sakowin (the Great Sioux Nation), is the Coordinator for “Defenders of the Black Hills,” a non-profit environmental organization. A writer and former college instructor, she is the recipient of the “International Nuclear Free Future Award for Resistance” and will receive the award next month in Salzburg, Austria. She may be reached at bhdefenders@msn.com.

One of the things most people in Nebraska do not think about when a wildfire breaks out is whether any uranium processing plants might be in danger of catching fire. That dire possibility, however, was probably on the minds of the workers at the Crow Butte Uranium Mine with the recent Soldier Creek Complex fires in northwestern Nebraska near Crawford.

What would have happened if the fire had reached the mine? Would it have been abandoned with all that radioactive material present? What would this mean for the general public? What would this mean for the people and environment downwind of the Crow Butte mine? Would the smoke have carried radioactive particles? Would there have been explosions? These are questions that not only Nebraskans need to ask, but also those people living anywhere near the Crow Butte mine in South Dakota and Wyoming.

Since the Crow Butte Uranium Solution Mine in Dawes County, Nebraska, has been around since 1985, the local community of Crawford has almost forgotten the kind of material they work with at the mine — except when someone phones to say they are coming to visit. That’s when some local will ask their visitors to bring their own drinking water. The residents are concerned that the local water is polluted with nuclear radiation from all the leaks and other violations that have occurred at the Crow Butte mine.

Uranium solution mining, also known as ‘in situ leach’ or ‘in situ recovery mining,’ utilizes a process in which wells are drilled into a groundwater aquifer. In one of the wells, called the ‘injection well,’ the mining operators inject a uraniumdissolving solution—known as a ‘lixiviant’ in the terminology — into an aquifer that contains uranium. (Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming all contain naturally occurring uranium.) After the solution is injected and the uranium — along with many other elements — is dissolved, the solution containing the uranium is ‘pressure-pulled’ toward another well called the ‘recovery well,’ where it is pumped to the surface. At the surface, the solution is in turn piped to the processing plant. The uranium is separated and the now-radioactive waste solution is placed in a waste pond, until such time as it can be pumped back into the aquifer.

If a sudden rain downpour happens, or leaks occur in the pond, the radioactive waste water will spill from the pond onto the surrounding ground and waterrunoff area. The radiation from the waste materials then spreads on the topsoil and gets into watershed areas. If the leaks occur in the pipes underground, or the dissolving solution has spread outside the aquifer underground, out of sight, then more radioactive pollution occurs in other aquifers or groundwater sources.

‘Monitor wells’ are drilled at various locations around the injection and recovery wells to detect when uranium solutions are spreading beyond where they were supposed to be. The phenomenon is called an ‘excursion,’ like going on a trip outside your area. However, when it’s deep underground in an aquifer and geologic formations, there is no way to stop the spreading, or excursion.

According to the World Information Service on Energy-Uranium Project, Crow Butte ISL Uranium Mine has had 23 License Violations from August 12, 1997 to Sept. 26, 2006. As a result of those 23 violations, 18 monitor wells have been drilled on the sites of known excursions. This raises the question of how much radioactive water seeped outside the supposedly confined aquifer in the past nine years? What areas and aquifers were contaminated with that radiation?

The most common environmental problems that have occurred at the Crow Butte In Situ Leach Uranium Mine, according to the South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources, were spills of injection and production fluid, broken pipes, leaks in pond liners and excursions. Another problem is the radon gas.

Highly radioactive radon gas occurs during the continuous process of uranium decay. Because it is a heavy gas, it tends to collect in low areas and buildings. It is also a hazardous air pollutant and must comply with the “Clean Air Act” national emission standards. Although by law the Crow Butte facility must have provisions for controlling this air pollutant, is it being monitored in the areas surrounding Crawford by other independent organizations, such as an environmental organization or a citizens group? As a gas, it would also move with air currents and cause pollution to other areas downwind of Crawford, which would mean most of the rest of the state of Nebraska could also be receiving this radioactive pollutant. Are the people of Nebraska aware that this hazardous air pollutant, which you cannot smell, might be carried by the wind into their areas? The nuclear radiation from radon gas causes lung cancer. Are lung cancer rates high in Nebraska? What about in the counties downwind from the Crow Butte mine?

The Crow Butte mining operation is owned by a Canadian company, “Cameco Corporation,” whose main office is in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. According to information given by Cameco, the Crow Butte mine produces nearly 800,000 pounds of uranium per year. With their holdings in Wyoming, Cameco claims to be the largest producer in the United States.

Cameco Corporation also professes to be the world’s largest uranium producer, providing 20 percent of the world’s total uranium production. They state that their uranium is used in nuclear energy plants around the world. Shares in Cameco Corporation are traded on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges, averaging around $36 per share in the U.S. The company reported record net earnings in the second quarter of 2007, which according to Cameco’s president and CEO, reflected “the company’s core strength in the uranium business.”

Based on its stock performance, Cameco Corporation is obviously a good investment for stockholders. Based on its environmental safety record, however, it’s less clear that it’s good for the residents of Nebraska and South Dakota — particularly if they have to start hauling their own water.